Many of the servitors of Lord Siva hailed from ordinary backgrounds, and they lived only to serve the Lord. Any disservice or insult to the Lord, disruption of events or disrespect to articles used in prayer and puja was enough to rouse the wrath of the Nayanmars who did not hesitate to mete out punishment forthwith, regardless of whether it was a human or a beast, said P. Swaminathan.
Sivakaamiyaar, a devotee who resided in Karur, was in the habit of gathering flowers to offer in the worship of the deity at Aanilai. Also residing in the same town was Eripathanar, a Nayanmar who wielded a battle axe and used if anything untoward happened to Sivanadiyars. During one Navaratri, the royal camp was set up in Karur and the king’s crown elephant was in the habit of bathing in the river.
Sivakaamiyar was proceeding to the temple with floral offering when the elephant went berserk, snatched the basket, smashed the flowers underfoot. The mahouts fled the scene with the elephant. On hearing about the desecration, Eripathanar chased the elephant, chopped off its trunk and felled the mahouts.
The king, on hearing that the crown elephant has been attacked, treated it as an act of war and set out with his army to destroy the ‘enemies of the kingdom.’ However, upon learning of his elephant’s wrathful deed, the king proclaimed that the offence against a devotee of ‘the Lord of the beautiful eyes’ required that he himself be punished too. Astounded by the king’s devotion to Siva.